


The Suze

by dovingbird



Series: Let Me Change Your Mind [1]
Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Angst, F/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 11:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovingbird/pseuds/dovingbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He doesn’t mean to stare. He really doesn’t. But goddamn, she’s The Suze! And that's going to ruin everything, isn't it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Suze

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't think Danny has at least a tiny crush on Suzy, I can write you a paper on why you're probably wrong.

It's a new dress. He knows that much. He's honestly not sure _how_ he knows that, but it is, and it's pretty, and goddamn, but does Suzy know how to pick out clothes when she shops. Danny's eyes take a quick, unconscious waltz right down her figure, from her sweetly curled hair to her black-painted toes, but they don't even last a second on the carpet before they flit right back up.  
  
He feels that rapid weird sort of rotting inside when she immediately flounces toward Ross, all cheerful and bubbly and having something to discuss about the scheduling of Steam Train or whatever, but he ignores it - figures his time'll come, whatever, that she probably thinks he's just a little absorbed in his notebook where he's been throwing around some wording for the next Starbomb album, sketching out some ideas for lyrics and potential gags. She doesn't like to interrupt, after all.  
  
Well. Not unless she just has the idea of butts on her mind. But that's a different story anyway.  
  
The pencil falls limp in his hand as he lets himself cheat just for a second, glances over the curve of her ass, but that cheat stretches out a second too long, and by the time he's looking back at the notebook he's clearing his throat a little. He tosses a few Skittles in his mouth and huffs out a sigh.  
  
No doing. All his inspiration's been bled dry. And he's a dude that understands the muse after twenty-plus years of dealing with her seriously, that knows you gotta set up a nice little bedroom for her - scented candles, candy-flavored massage oil, those awesome condoms with the studs - before she even graces you with her presence, but fuck, there are some days it just doesn't work. Apparently he just got stuck in one of them and shat on.  
  
So he abandons the notebook. Shuts it and threads the pencil through the binding on the side. And when Ross says something fucking stupid and Suzy's little tinkly laugh sounds, he glances up and feels that little gurgling annoyance in the pit of his stomach again.  
  
"Looks nice, doesn't she?"  
  
The words resonate through his head for a long moment before he blinks, breaks out of the haze, explodes into awareness. It's Barry. Barry's leaning against the back of the couch beside him, eyebrow quirked as he studies him with that way-too-serious expression that the kid can never seem to shake. But Danny hasn't been flustered for ages, and it's pretty much impossible to catch him offguard, and that's why it's instinct for him to grin, to even let the beginning of a fluttering chuckle float out with his words. "What, the Suze?"  
  
"Yeah." Barry shrugs, glancing back across the room, and that's all the permission Danny needs to let his eyes float back over too. "It's a cool dress."  
  
Dan hesitates. "I guess. But, I mean, she always wears cool stuff."  
  
"You're right. Didn't she wear that at MAGfest?"  
  
"Nah. I feel like she probably got it yesterday. I remember she said she was going shopping or something with her buds, right, because there was some special going down at the...the mall..." He trails off at the end of the sentence when he meets Barry's eyes again, because he no longer looks serious, exactly. He looks...a little _sad._ And that's weird. "...you okay, Barry?"  
  
Barry rubs at his beard for a moment, tracing the couch's pattern with his eyes, before he sharply exhales. "...you know, I just..."  
  
"...is this gonna be one of those heart-to-heart talks, Bear-Bear?" Danny grins at him, even reaching to pat his hand. "You finally realize the depths of your love for m-"  
  
" _Dan._ "  
  
His smile freezes, but he barely even reacts when Barry knocks his hand away. There's something heavy in the air, in the way that Barry's whispering everything, and it's making him get that weird shivery feeling he got the first, what, ten times he filmed with Arin? Not the good shivers. Not the ones he feels when he smells a certain whiff of perfume or...he shoves that thought aside before he can complete it, leaning a little closer to Barry. "What's up, dude?"  
  
"...Arin knows, Dan."  
  
He blinks. But then he chuckles again, even shaking his head. "Knows what? His wife's shopping habits? C'mon, they've got enough cash to spend, and-"  
  
"You look at her."  
  
Dan feels his mouth go dry.  
  
"And you smile at her. And you go out of your way to sit next to her. And you know, man, if you were in school, I'm betting you could probably write a dissertation about her overnight." Barry goes quiet as he droops on the back of the couch, lays there like Mimi or something, his head on his forearms, but this time when he looks at Danny the lingering traces of sadness just make him want to throw up. "And I swear to God...that Arin knows."  
  
Danny deflates into the couch a little, feeling the air shoot out of him like he's been punched. Tries to wrap his head around what Barry's saying. It doesn't take a lot. His insides start melting down as he comes to the quick and inevitable conclusion that Jesus the Christ, he's a douche, isn't he, macking on his best friend's wife like that, but just how sick is it that he...he doesn't exactly know how to stop either? He drags a hand through his hair, digging his short nails into his scalp, trying to ignore the way his stomach's churning, worse than the day that he ate a two-pound bag of Skittles and drank a two-liter of Cheerwine right after.  
  
"He hasn't said anything," Barry mumbles, his mouth getting lost somewhere in his elbow crease in his desperation to be quiet. "But I don't...I don't want him to have to."  
  
He gets it. This is a wild fucking ride for all of them, a train to Crazytown that none of them ever anticipated, not even him. A dream. The most amazing way for him to promote his shit, to fill his pockets doing what he loves, and to do it in the company of the bros he'd take a bullet for.  
  
And it just makes a certain amount of sick cosmic sense that he, the one that waited for something that would never come when he was twenty-three, would be the one to fuck it all up because ten years later he'd decided to become a selfish bastard instead.  
  
He nods. "I get it."  
  
Barry lifts a hand, like he's going to touch him to comfort him or something, but he hesitates, letting it shake in the air for a moment before dropping it limply. "I'm sorry," he murmurs.  
  
Danny stares at his hands.  
  
"...there's...there's other girls."  
  
But there will never fucking be another Suze.  
  
Her cheerful lilting voice pipes up across the room, then, just a "Hey!" but it's enough to make Danny flash his eyes up, watch as Arin swoops in and wraps his arms around her from behind and raspberries against her neck. "Gross!" she cries, even though she's laughing all the while, and she wiggles in Arin's arms, finally breaking away from him for only a brief moment of freedom before she spins around and grabs his face and plants a warm kiss right on his lips.  
  
He's staring, feeling his insides start to rot, and he's still staring when they break the kiss and when Arin's eyes immediately find his.  
  
 _Shit._  
  
Danny jumps to his feet like a jack-in-the-box, forces out a cheerful "God, I could use a Coke. You want one, Barry? Ross?" But he doesn't even hear the response as he plows through, heading straight for the kitchen. And all he knows is that when he's about to turn the corner, when he glances over his shoulder, Arin's still watching him from where he's got his arm looped around Suzy's waist.


End file.
